Jef Chippewa (Canadian, living in Berlin), is a composer of electroacoustic and instrumental works, specialist in the notation of new music, arts administrator, project manager and a fantastic cook. In recent works he has explored the potential of the miniature as a way of problematizing musical form, notably with 17 miniatures (flute, extended piano, drumset and several dozen sound-producing objects) and in hisfootscapes (electroacoustic) and postcards (toy piano and sound objects) series. Sound objects and funky performance techniques play a large role in his works since plastik [disposable music #2] (2003) andin nomine (2004), and a mildly theatrical, gestural-choreographic element has been a crucial compositional element of most of his recent instrumental pieces, notably “… unless he senses when to jump” (2012) and …without… (2008).

His compositions have been performed in such concert series and festivals as Ai-Maako (Santiago), EuCuE (Montréal), Darmstadt Ferienkurse, FUTURA (France), Inventionen (Berlin), ISCM (Stuttgart, 2006)MANTIS (Manchester UK) and Visiones Sonores (Morelia, Mexico). Ensembles such as LUX:NM, Trio Nexus, Quartet New Generation and ensemble recherche have commissioned and/or performed his compositions.

In 1999, jef chippewa founded shirling & neueweise, a company specialised in New Music notation, which collaborates with composers, ensembles and publishers (mathias spahlinger, Bernhard Lang, Sebastian Claren, ensemble recherche, PEER Music-Classical, Breitkopf & Härtel). The quality of his work is recognized by his international peers, notably by Breitkopf, who in 2010 invited him to prepare the first digital edition of Helmut Lachenmann’s pivotal work, Pression. Further examples of his notation work are published in Theresa Tisano’s Notations 21. Since 2010, drawing on his experiences as both a copyist and a composer, he has been developing a module-based seminar, “New Music Notation: Score Design, Function and Role.” Aiming to encourage better mastery and understanding of the notation of contemporary works in the instrumental and electroacoustic milieux, he has given the seminar in various forms in Canada, Germany, Israel, Mexico, UK and the USA.

Working as Project Manager, chippewa has coordinated several tours and events for the Canadian Electroacoustic Community (notably their 25th Anniversary Tour), Gilles Gobeil and the laptop trio Endphase, among others. For nearly a decade, jef chippewa has been Administrative co-Director of the Canadian Electroacoustic Community (CEC), Canada’s national association for electroacoustic music, and Coordinating Editor for the CEC’s quarterly electronic journal, eContact! His efforts in this position have contributed greatly to establishing the CEC’s highly respected international presence and to making it the most active and progressive of the national EA associations.